Calibration on Mars

Here is some interesting reading for the geeks among us who might be curious how one goes about calibrating a camera on Mars: 

• http://www.wired.com/curiosity-mars-rover-cameras/

And here are some details about the calibration target used on the Curiosity:

• http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/images/?ImageID=3804

Quiz your fellows over the water cooler: How much US currency is on Mars?

Actual pictures from Mars coming to us over the next few weeks & months promise to be high quality, clear and sharp.  Not the sorts of images we're used to seeing from other planets!

Viewing a Rendered Gamut in ColorThink

Number 3 in our series of Tips and Tricks for ColorThink shows you how to view a "rendered" gamut in ColorThink Pro. This, combined with the "proofing" gamut can give you both directions of a profile at the same time. This is a great way to analyze the quality of a printer profile.
View it at the ColorSmarts YouTube Channel

or 

At the Tips and Tricks page of the ColorWiki.

Konica Minolta Sensing Announces CHROMiX As A Reseller For Graphic Arts Product Line

RAMSEY, NJ, June 5, 2012
Konica Minolta Sensing Americas, Inc. (KMSA), the worldwide leader in the industrial measurement of color, light and 3D shape, announces the addition of CHROMiX, Inc. as a new reseller of Konica Minolta’s FD- Series Spectrodensitometers.

CHROMiX is the leading provider of technical services and reseller of graphic arts products. They are uniquely positioned as both a software developer as well as a reseller, making them unique in the industry. ColorThink Pro, Maxwell, and Curve2 are three color management software products created by and with CHROMiX which have been widely adapted.

“CHROMiX’s reputation for great customer service as well as a leading voice of color management know-how was a key factor in selecting them as a reseller of the Konica Minolta instruments” said Russell Doucette, Business Development Manager for KMSA.  “We look forward to CHROMiX supporting us with our growing product line of instruments and software for the offset and digital printing markets as well as quality control and formulation.”

CHROMiX has taken on the FD series product line because of its cutting edge approach to address the M0, M1 and M2 standards. “Offering our customers cutting edge products and software to meet their needs has always been priority one”, says Steve Upton, President of CHROMiX, Inc. “We believe the products brought forth by Konica Minolta will allow our customers yet another choice for measuring and achieving the best color accuracy.”

Learn more about the FD Series spectrodensitometer by visiting our website today.

Leg, Arm & Back Braces

One of the more satisfying uses of modern digital printing has to be helping kids who need artificial limbs and braces to have customized images of their choice printed into their brace.

Here is one of our targets printed onto a plastic prosthetic material, and a sample of the colorful designs that can be imprinted onto these braces.
We profile this material too!
What can we do for you?

ColorThink Grapher: What does bad look like?

Number 2 in the ColorThink Tips & Tricks video series is:
What does bad look like?

People who are using the ColorThink Grapher for the first time might not have much perspective on what a gamut is supposed to look like. You might not know a bad profile if you saw it! This tip goes through a range of different problems that we have come across which the ColorThink Grapher is particularly adept at identifying. You can view this at our ColorSmarts channel on YouTube, or in the "Tips and Tricks" page of the ColorWiki.

New instrument from X-Rite

After almost a decade in the color management industry, it's about time they replaced this instrument with a new model.  X-Rite today announced that they are coming out with a new i1Pro spectrophotometer:  the "i1Pro 2".

The first i1Pro I ever purchased goes way back to 2004 - a "Rev A" instrument.   There have been improvements in subsequent revs - most notably speed - but the form of the instrument has not changed appreciably even through a major acquisition and merger.   One of the main improvements with this new device is an additional patch detection sensor.  This aids in the detection of the space between patches so that the main spectrophotometer head can use more of its measurement information toward more accuracy and better averaging of the patches.  It also has two built-in light sources so that it can produce tungsten, D50 daylight and UV-cut measurements, all in the same device, without changing filters.   It has temperature compensation and noise reduction for dark patches - two more features we've been bemoaning not having in the previous i1Pro.

If you want a killer deal on one of the old i1Pros, you can still get them for a little while yet.
CHROMiX has the i1Pro and the new i1Pro 2 available on our website.

 

Eizo profiles iPads

I just discovered that Eizo has added a procedure for profiling tablet displays, phones, etc. to their new ColorNavigator software.  They call it Media Emulation.  ColorNavigator is the free profiling software that works with their higher-end monitors like the "CG" series. With this feature, you can choose an option for "Create ICC profile for tablet/display device..." and the software will send a series of color patches to a web site that your tablet can access. As you place your measurement instrument on the portable display, ColorNavigator will read the colors and create an ICC profile.

Now you have a means of profiling these displays even though you cannot connect a USB measurement device directly to them! You can use the resulting profile to "soft-proof" what your images will look like when they are viewed on these displays. Available on the latest version of ColorNavigator (version 6.1.1).